“I grabbed him, put one arm around his neck, and held one arm against his arm to keep his would-be gun in his pocket and took him down to the ground,” he said.

Brandon Slanger, 38, was arraigned in Grand Rapids District Court on a charge of assault with intent to rob while armed and being a habitual offender. He is jailed on $250,000 bond.

The robbery occurred around 10:15 a.m. on March 22 at Spike & Mike’s, 967 E. Fulton St. Police said the robber implied he had a weapon and demanded money.

Thome said he was in line to pay for an energy drink when another customer let him go ahead. Then, he saw the robber at the counter.

“I stepped in front and I think he kind of expected me to pay attention to what was going on when he said that (I could cut in line),” Thome told the Lanthorn. “I didn’t (pay attention, though) and another second goes by and he says to me, ‘I don’t know, I think that he’s got a gun.’”

Thome told the Lanthorn that the clerk signaled that a robbery was occurring. The man had his hand in his pocket as if he had a weapon.

“So I’m thinking about how to get this guy, so I think to myself if I can hold that hand straight against his leg, then I won’t have to worry about the gun,” Thome told the Lanthorn. “At the very most, he would shoot himself in the leg.”

He believed he could overpower the robber, he said.

Once he did, he told others in the store to pat down the suspect for weapons. He wound up choking the robber, who passed out, he said.

“As soon as he’s out, I kind of hold him there for a little bit,” he said. “My adrenaline was kind of going so I didn’t realize he was out.”

He said his military and martial arts background played a big part.

“The actual tactic of the choke was what I learned from Grand Rapids Mixed Martials Arts,” he told the Lanthorn.

“I want to stress that, [because] the Grand Rapids Mixed Martial Arts is probably the reason why I had the confidence to do something, for sure. As far as protocol for isolating, say, a person of interest and making sure there’s no threat, that was from the military. So as soon as I had him on the ground, it was like snap, snap, snap from what I learned in the military for apprehending a suspect.”

Thome told the Lanthorn he talked to police, then went home and studied, like he planned.